Concomitant leukocytosis and lymphopenia predict significant pathology at CT of acute abdomen: a case-control study.

Background: Acute abdominal pain accounts for about 10% of emergency department visits and has progressively become the primary indication for CT scanning in most centers. The goal of our study is to identify biological or clinical variables able to predict or rule out significant pathology (conditions requiring urgent medical or surgical treatment) on abdominal CT in patients presenting to an emergency department with acute abdominal pain.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study performed in the emergency department of an academic center with an annual census of 60'000 patients.